Apparatus and method for spectrum management, apparatus and method for base station side and user equipment side

ABSTRACT

A first spectrum management apparatus that includes circuitry that acquires spectrum utilization information, determines a probability of getting spectrum resources, determines, based on the probability, adjusted spectrum sensing parameters to be used by the first wireless communication system, the adjusted spectrum sensing parameters including an energy detection threshold for spectrum sensing, transmits, to the first wireless communication system, an instruction to change original spectrum sensing parameters of the first wireless communication system to the adjusted spectrum sensing parameters, receives, from a second spectrum management apparatus that manages a second wireless communication system, spectrum sensing parameters changing feedback indicating that the second wireless communication system has been influenced by the first wireless communication system using the adjusted spectrum sensing parameters, and transmits, to the first wireless communication system, another instruction to change the adjusted spectrum sensing parameters back to the original spectrum sensing parameters.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Pat. Application No.17/492,698, filed Oct. 04, 2021, which is a continuation of U.S. Pat.Application No. 16/070,749, filed Jul. 17, 2018 (now U.S. Pat. No.11,166,165), which is a national stage (under 35 U.S.C. 371) ofInternational Patent Application No. PCT/CN2017/071358, filed Jan. 17,2017 and claims the priority to Chinese Patent Application No.201610031275.0, entitled “SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT APPARATUS AND METHOD,APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR BASE STATION SIDE AND USER DEVICE SIDE”, filedwith the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office on Jan. 18, 2016,each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the fieldof wireless communications, and particularly relate to co-existencemanagement of multiple systems in wireless communications. Moreparticularly, the embodiments of the present invention relate to aspectrum management apparatus and method, an apparatus and a method fora base station side of a wireless communication system, as well as anapparatus and a method for a user device side of a wirelesscommunication system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As the wireless network develops and evolves, it carriers more and moreservice, and thus additional spectrum resources are required to supportmassive data transmission. The spectrum resources can be denoted forexample by parameters such as time, frequency, bandwidth, allowablemaximum emitting power and so on. The limited spectrum resources havebeen assigned to certain operators or services, while new availablespectrum is quite rare or cost expensive. In such a situation, a conceptof dynamical spectrum utilization is proposed. That is, the spectrumresources which have been assigned to certain systems or services buthave not been utilized sufficiently are to be dynamically utilized.These spectrum resources belong to an unlicensed frequency band for thesystems which make use of them dynamically. Before using an unlicensedfrequency band, a wireless communication system should first determinewhether this frequency band is available. Since the communicationsystems of different operators and the communication systems underdifferent communication protocols have the fair right to use theunlicensed frequency band, how to use the same unlicensed frequency bandfairly and effectively has become an urgent problem to be solved by theindustry.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In the following, an overview of the present invention is given simplyto provide basic understanding to some aspects of the present invention.It should be understood that this overview is not an exhaustive overviewof the present invention. It is not intended to determine a criticalpart or an important part of the present invention, nor to limit thescope of the present invention. An object of the overview is only togive some concepts in a simplified manner, which serves as a preface ofa more detailed description described later.

According to an aspect of the present application, there is provided aspectrum management apparatus, including: an acquiring unit, configuredto acquire spectrum utilization information of at least one wirelesscommunication system in a predetermined region on a predeterminedfrequency band; a determining unit, configured to determine, accordingto the spectrum utilization information, spectrum utilization efficiencyof a corresponding wireless communication system in the predeterminedregion; and an adjusting unit, configured to adjust, based on thespectrum utilization efficiency, spectrum sensing parameters of thecorresponding wireless communication system in the predetermined regionon the predetermined frequency band.

According to another aspect of the present application, there isprovided an apparatus for a base station side of a wirelesscommunication system, including: a transmitting unit, configured totransmit spectrum utilization information of a cell served by the basestation on a predetermined frequency band to a spectrum managementapparatus; and a receiving unit, configured to receive a change inspectrum sensing parameters from the spectrum management apparatus.

According to an aspect of the present application, there is provided anapparatus for a user device side of a wireless communication system,including: a receiving unit, configured to receive an instruction forperforming spectrum sensing and corresponding spectrum sensingparameters from a base station; a sensing unit, configured to performthe spectrum sensing according to the spectrum sensing parameters inresponse to the instruction; and a transmitting unit, configured totransmit a result of the spectrum sensing to the base station.

According to another aspect of the present application, there isprovided a spectrum management method, including: acquiring spectrumutilization information of at least one wireless communication system ina predetermined region on a predetermined frequency band; determining,according to the spectrum utilization information, spectrum utilizationefficiency of a corresponding wireless communication system in thepredetermined region; and adjusting, based on the spectrum utilizationefficiency, spectrum sensing parameters of the corresponding wirelesscommunication system in the predetermined region on the predeterminedfrequency band.

According to another aspect of the present application, there isprovided a method for a base station side of a wireless communicationsystem, including: transmitting spectrum utilization information of acell served by the base station on a predetermined frequency band to aspectrum management apparatus; and receiving a change in spectrumsensing parameters from the spectrum management apparatus.

According to another aspect of the present application, there isprovided a method for a user device side of a wireless communicationsystem, including: receiving an instruction for performing spectrumsensing and corresponding spectrum sensing parameters from a basestation; performing the spectrum sensing according to the spectrumsensing parameters in response to the instruction; and transmitting aresult of the spectrum sensing to the base station.

According to another aspect of the present application, there is furtherprovided a wireless communication system, including a base station and auser device. The base station includes the above mentioned apparatus fora base station side of the wireless communication system, and the userdevice includes the above mentioned apparatus for a user device side ofthe wireless communication system.

According to other aspects of the present invention, there are furtherprovided computer program codes and computer program product forimplementing the above mentioned spectrum management method, the methodfor a base station side and a user device side of a wirelesscommunication system, as well as a computer readable storage medium onwhich computer program codes for realizing the aforementioned spectrummanagement method, the method for a base station side and a user deviceside of a wireless communication system are recorded.

In the embodiments of the present application, by adjusting the spectrumsensing parameters of a wireless communication system according to thespectrum utilization efficiency, the usage of the wireless communicationsystem with respect to the spectrum resources of the predeterminedfrequency band can be effectively guaranteed, and/or differentcommunication systems are enabled to use the spectrum resourcesreasonably and effectively.

These and other advantages of the present invention will be moreapparent by illustrating in detail a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention in conjunction with accompanying drawings below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To further set forth the above and other advantages and features of thepresent invention, detailed description will be made in the followingtaken in conjunction with accompanying drawings in which identical orlike reference signs designate identical or like components. Theaccompanying drawings, together with the detailed description below, areincorporated into and form a part of the specification. It should benoted that the accompanying drawings only illustrate, by way of example,typical embodiments of the present invention and should not be construedas a limitation to the scope of the invention. In the accompanyingdrawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural block diagram illustrating the spectrummanagement apparatus according to an embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the system distribution under the LTEcommunication system scenario;

FIG. 3 illustrates a simulation result of the probability of activationof the communication systems in the scenario of FIG. 2 , in the case ofadjusting the spectrum sensing parameters of a communication system;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural block diagram illustrating the spectrummanagement apparatus according to another embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural block diagram illustrating theapparatus for a base station side of a wireless communication systemaccording to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural block diagram illustrating theapparatus for a user device side of a wireless communication systemaccording to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the spectrum management methodaccording to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the method for a base station side ofa wireless communication system according to an embodiment of thepresent application;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the method for a user device side ofa wireless communication system according to an embodiment of thepresent application;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of the information procedure between thespectrum management apparatus and the wireless communication systems;

FIG. 11 illustrates another example of the information procedure betweenthe spectrum management apparatus and the wireless communicationsystems;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a first example of a schematicconfiguration of an eNB to which the technology of the presentdisclosure can be applied;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a second example of a schematicconfiguration of an eNB to which the technology of the presentdisclosure can be applied;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a smartphone to which the technology of the presentdisclosure can be applied;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a car navigation apparatus to which the technology ofthe present disclosure can be applied; and

FIG. 16 is an exemplary block diagram illustrating the structure of ageneral purpose personal computer capable of realizing the method and/orapparatus and/or system according to the embodiments of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

An exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be describedhereinafter in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. For thepurpose of conciseness and clarity, not all features of an embodimentare described in this specification. However, it should be understoodthat multiple decisions specific to the embodiment have to be made in aprocess of developing any such embodiment to realize a particular objectof a developer, for example, conforming to those constraints related toa system and a business, and these constraints may change as theembodiments differs. Furthermore, it should also be understood thatalthough the development work may be very complicated andtime-consuming, for those skilled in the art benefiting from the presentdisclosure, such development work is only a routine task.

Here, it should also be noted that in order to avoid obscuring thepresent invention due to unnecessary details, only a device structureand/or processing steps closely related to the solution according to thepresent invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawing, and otherdetails having little relationship to the present invention are omitted.

The First Embodiment

FIG. 1 illustrates a structural block diagram of a spectrum managementapparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present application. Asshown in FIG. 1 , the spectrum management apparatus 100 includes: anacquiring unit 101, configured to acquire spectrum utilizationinformation of at least one wireless communication system in apredetermined region on a predetermined frequency band; a determiningunit 102, configured to determine, according to the spectrum utilizationinformation, spectrum utilization efficiency of a corresponding wirelesscommunication system in the predetermined region; and an adjusting unit103, configured to adjust, based on the spectrum utilization efficiency,spectrum sensing parameters of the corresponding wireless communicationsystem in the predetermined region on the predetermined frequency band.

Wherein, the predetermined frequency band is a frequency band to bedynamically used or being dynamically used in common by the abovementioned wireless communication systems (hereinafter, referred as acommunication system or system simply). In an example, the predeterminedfrequency band is an unlicensed frequency band, such as 2.4G and 5Gfrequency band for industrial, research and medical use, or a frequencyband which can be used in an unlicensed manner according to the law ineach country such as the television frequency band, 3.5 GHz in USA, etc.It is to be understood, the predetermined frequency band can be anyfrequency band which is capable of being commonly used by multiplewireless communication systems. Each of the wireless communicationsystems or a sub-system therein, when aiming to use the predeterminedfrequency band, should judge whether the frequency band is available,such as whether it has been occupied by another system or anothersub-system via spectrum sensing at first, in order to ensure thevalidity and fairness of usage of the frequency band.

The predetermined region may be all or a part of the region managed bythe spectrum management apparatus 100. For this predetermined region,the spectrum management apparatus 100 performs, for example,optimization of spectrum utilization efficiency of a predeterminedfrequency band. In other words, the predetermined region may be a regiondetermined according to the optimization of the application or theservice. As a non-limiting example, the predetermined region may be aregion of an administrative division, a building, or a mall, or may be atemporarily selected geographical range for a certain purpose. Forexample, the predetermined region may be a rectangular region, acircular region, an oval region, or any other shape of region. Thepredetermined region may be determined in advance by the spectrummanagement apparatus 100, or may be set by a higher-level device orapplication. As an example, a predetermined region may be determined byvertices of a rectangle in the case that it is a rectangular region, apredetermined region may be determined by a boundary of one building inthe case that it is a region of the building, and so on and so forth.

Furthermore, in the embodiments of the present application, a wirelesscommunication system can be considered as a combination of multipledevices having function of transmitting and receiving. For example, thewireless communication system can be a set consisting of all the basestations and user devices of the same mobile operator, or a setconsisting of all the base stations and user devices of the same mobileoperator which use the same communication format. The wirelesscommunication system can also be a sub-set of the above mentioned set,for example, the base stations and user devices limited in themanagement region of the spectrum management apparatus. In addition, thewireless communication system can further be a set of the base stationsand user devices of different mobile operators using the samecommunication format or it is similar to the previously stated sub-set.On the other hand, the wireless communication system can be a set of thebase stations and user devices belonging to the same service provider orit is similar to the previously stated sub-set. As an example, in thecase of the LTE communication system, the wireless communication systemcan be a sub-set of the LTE communication system, for example, a groupof sub-systems at the cell level. The sub-system at the cell levelincludes for example a base station (macro base station or small basestation) and one or more user devices. In practice, the wirelesscommunication system is not limited to the LTE communication system orits sub-set. Instead, it can also be other kind of communication systemor its sub-set, such as the WiFi communication system or its sub-set andthe like. In addition, in some examples, for example, in the scenario ofthe device to device communications, the wireless communication systemcan be appreciated as a device cluster formed by a plurality of userdevices.

Accordingly, the predetermined region may include multiple wirelesscommunication systems. These wireless communication systems may be ofthe same type, such as the LTE communication system, or may be ofdifferent types, for example, including an LTE communication system anda WiFi communication system. The LTE communication system may beoperated by different operators, and may adopt different communicationschemes. The WiFi communication system may include multiple accesspoints (a region covered by each access point is equivalent to a smallcell in LTE). As a specific example, the predetermined region may be arange of a macro cell covered by one or more LTE communication systems,and several WiFi access points are distributed in this range.

To facilitate description, a sub-set of the LTE communication system istaken as an application example in the following embodiments. However,it should be understood that this is not limiting.

As mentioned above, one or more wireless communication systems can bearranged in the predetermined region, which manages their behavior ofmaking use of the predetermined frequency band. For ease ofunderstanding, FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the system distributionunder the scenario of the LTE communication system. In FIG. 2 , thetriangle denotes a macro base station, the pentagrams in the leftellipse denote small cell base stations belonging to the first operator,and circles in the right ellipse denote small cell base stationsbelonging to the second operator. The devices in the left ellipse can betaken as a wireless communication system and the devices in the rightellipse can be taken as another wireless communication system. Note thatalthough the small cell base stations of the two operators arerespectively included in different ellipses in FIG. 2 , these small cellbase stations are distributed in the same geographical region, i.e., thepredetermined region described above. In other words, in this example,the predetermined region is a part of the coverage range of the macrocell and is simultaneously covered by two wireless communicationsystems. In practice, the two communication systems can be managed bythe same spectrum management apparatus, or can also be managed bydifferent spectrum management apparatus, which will be described indetail later.

As stated above, in the spectrum management apparatus 100, the acquiringunit 101 acquires the utilization status of each wireless communicationsystem in a predetermined region on the predetermined frequency band, sothat the determining unit 102 determines the spectrum utilizationefficiency of respective communication system. Then, the adjusting unit103 adjusts the spectrum sensing parameters of respective communicationsystems according to the spectrum utilization efficiency. Wherein, thespectrum sensing parameters are information of the configuration adoptedby the wireless communication system in the predetermined region inperforming spectrum sensing on the predetermined frequency band. Throughchanging the spectrum sensing parameters, the wireless communicationsystem (or each sub-system therein such as the LTE cell) can be causedto make different judgment as to whether the current spectrum isavailable, and thus the probability for the wireless communicationsystem to get the spectrum resources and the probability of protectionof the existing communication systems are changed. That is, the spectrumutilization efficiency of the wireless communication system is changed.It should be understood that in the case that the predetermined regionis different, the spectrum utilization information acquired by theacquisition unit 101 is different, so that the determined spectrumutilization efficiency is different. Accordingly, the adjusting unit 103may adjust the spectrum sensing parameters differently.

As an example, the spectrum sensing parameters include at least one ofthe following: an energy detection threshold for spectrum sensing, timeduration for spectrum sensing, the number of nodes involved in sensingand a judgment criterion of spectrum sensing in the case of distributedspectrum sensing.

In the embodiments of the present application, any suitable spectrumsensing technology can be adopted to perform the spectrum sensing.Correspondingly, the spectrum sensing parameters can be any parametersinfluencing the result of the spectrum sensing during the process. Forexample, as for a system performing the spectrum sensing by energydetection, if the energy detection threshold is set to be -70dBm, whenthe energy detection performed by the system finds that the signalenergy in the spectrum of this frequency band is lower than -70dBm, itis considered that no system is occupying the frequency band and thus itis determined that the spectrum resources are available. At this time,other communication systems may exist. However, due to a longtransmission distance, the energy of the signal after reaching thesystem which is performing the spectrum sensing has been attenuated tobe below -70dBm, for example, to -80dBm, and thus can not be detected.If the energy detection threshold is decreased to -85dBm, the systemwhich is performing the spectrum sensing would detect the existence ofthat system and thus determines that the frequency band is notavailable. Meanwhile, it is to be understood that setting differentenergy detection threshold would lead to different protection of theexisting systems. The higher energy detection threshold increases thechance to use the spectrum, but also increases the probability ofproducing interferences to the existing systems. On the contrary,decreasing the energy detection threshold will decrease the chance touse the spectrum, but enhance the protection for the existing systems.

In addition, the spectrum sensing duration, i.e., the size of the timewindow to perform the spectrum sensing can also be adjusted. It can beappreciated that the longer the time duration is, the larger theprobability of detecting the existence of the existing communicationsystems becomes. Thus, the chance of using the spectrum is decreased andthe protection for the existing systems is enhanced. Otherwise, thechance of using the spectrum is increased and the protection for theexisting systems is weakened.

As another way, distributed spectrum sensing (i.e., coordinated sensing)can also be adopted. In this situation, spectrum sensing such as theabove mentioned energy detection is performed by a plurality ofindependent communication devices such as a plurality of base stationsin different positions. Then, the results are aggregated in a centraljudgment apparatus to perform the judgment whether the spectrum isavailable. The central judgment apparatus can be located in a certainbase station or in the spectrum management apparatus, for example. Inanother example, the communication devices performing the spectrumsensing can further include the user devices. The user device and thebase station can be generally referred as nodes.

Since the final judgment is performed according to the spectrum sensingresults of multiple nodes in the central judgment apparatus, factorssuch as the number of nodes involved in sensing and the judgmentcriterion of spectrum sensing will affect the probability of succeedingin getting the spectrum. The judgment criterion of spectrum sensing mayinclude for example the AND principle, the OR principle, the proportionprinciple or the like. The AND principle means that only when all thenodes determines that the predetermined frequency band is available, thefrequency band is finally determined to be available. The OR principlemeans that if one node determines that the predetermined frequency bandis available, the frequency band is finally determined to be available.The proportion principle means that if the nodes determining that thepredetermined frequency band is available accounts for a presetproportion of the nodes performing the spectrum sensing, the frequencyband is finally determined to be available. It is to be understood that,in the case that the number of nodes is the same, when adopting the ORprinciple, the communication system will have a higher chance to obtainthe spectrum resources, while the AND principle will cause thecommunication system to obtain the spectrum resources in a quiteconservative way, realizing better protection for the existing systems.

The adjusting unit 103 can adjust one of the above mentioned severalspectrum sensing parameters, or adjust two or more thereofsimultaneously. Moreover, the spectrum sensing parameters are notlimited to the above examples, and can include other parametersdepending on different spectrum sensing technology.

For example, the adjusting unit 103 can adjust, in the case that thespectrum utilization efficiency deviates from an expected value, thespectrum sensing parameters of the corresponding wireless communicationsystem, so that the spectrum utilization efficiency of the correspondingwireless communication system reaches the expected value. The expectedvalue is a target value of the spectrum utilization efficiency of thecorresponding communication system. It can be preset by the spectrummanagement apparatus 100, or can be adjusted automatically or manuallyduring the operation.

The actual spectrum utilization efficiency of the communication systemis determined by the determination unit 102 based on the spectrumutilization information acquired by the acquiring unit 101. As anexample, the spectrum utilization information includes at least one ofthe following: information of actual activation status of each cell inthe wireless communication system in a predetermined region afterspectrum sensing, throughput of the wireless communication system in thepredetermined region, and a signal to noise ratio of the wirelesscommunication system in the predetermined region. For example, when thespectrum utilization information is the information of actual activationstatus of each cell, the spectrum utilization efficiency can be denotedby the number of the activated cells or the proportion thereof.

For example, in the case that the spectrum sensing parameters are theenergy detection threshold, the adjusting unit 103 is configured to, inthe case of the spectrum utilization efficiency being higher than theexpected value, decrease the energy detection threshold of thecorresponding wireless communication system, and/or in the case of thespectrum utilization efficiency being lower than the expected value,increase the energy detection threshold of the corresponding wirelesscommunication system. This is because when the energy detectionthreshold decreases, the probability for the wireless communicationsystem to obtain the spectrum resources decreases, and correspondinglythe ratio of the spectrum resource utilization would decrease.

It should be noted that, although adjusting spectrum sensing parametersis described in the above with respect to the wireless communicationsystem, that is, the wireless communication system is adjusted as awhole, adjusting can also be performed only with respect to itssub-system, or different adjusting is performed on differentsub-systems. For example, different spectrum sensing parameters can beset for different LTE cells, or different parameter adjusting can beperformed for different LTE cells.

The adjusting unit 103 can perform the above mentioned adjusting basedon a preset system model. In the preset system model, the relationshipbetween the spectrum sensing parameters and the spectrum utilizationefficiency is reflected. For example, the preset system model caninclude at least one of the following: a channel model, a service model,a model of probability for spectrum activation of the system in thepredetermined region, and a geographical location model.

Taking the model of probability for spectrum activation of the system asan example, it can be calculated from the actual service model that thenumber of the activated cells follows the Poisson distribution. Or, eachcell is assumed to be provided with an activation probability accordingto its service requirement. The activated cells perform the spectrumsensing and it is determined whether the predetermined frequency band isavailable. At last, the spectrum utilization efficiency of the systemcan be calculated by statistics. By changing the spectrum sensingparameters such as the energy detection threshold, the expected spectrumutilization efficiency can be achieved.

In an example, different expected values of spectrum utilizationefficiency can be set for wireless communication systems with differentpriority levels of utilizing the spectrum. For example, a system with ahigher priority level is provided with a higher expected value. Inpractice, the expected value of the spectrum utilization efficiency of acommunication system can also be set according to its service category,payment state and the like.

In addition, the acquiring unit 101 can be further configured to acquireinformation indicating an identifier of each cell in the wirelesscommunication system in the predetermined region, and the determiningunit 102 is configured to determine whether a cell in an active stateand a cell failing to be activated are systems of the same type based onthe information indicating the identifier of each cell in the wirelesscommunication system, wherein, the adjusting unit 103 can be configuredto perform the adjusting in the case that the determining unit 102determines that the cell in the active state and the cell failing to beactivated are systems of the same type.

Here, the systems of the same type refer to one of the following cases:the systems use the same spectrum access strategy, for example, all ofthem are LTE cells or all of them are WiFi cells; or they belong to thesame mobile operator or the same service provider. Moreover, theinformation of the identifier of the cell can be an ID of the cell or areference signal of the cell. The spectrum management apparatus 100knows information of the ID assignment and the assignment of referencesignal of cells of different wireless communication systems in advance.Therefore, the determining unit 102 can determine whether two cells aresystems of the same type according to the acquired information of theidentifier. The adjusting unit 103 can performs the adjusting only inthe case of being systems of the same type.

As for a LTE communication system, the spectrum management apparatus 100can be located at the base station side, for example, implemented by themacro base station or the small base station. Alternatively, it can alsobe located in the core network, for example, implemented by the evolvedpacket core (EPC) under the LTE protocol. In addition, in a currentsystem complying with IEEE 802.19.1 standard, the spectrum managementapparatus 100 can be implemented in the co-existence manager (CM).

In an example, the acquiring unit 101 can acquire the above mentionedspectrum utilization information (and the information of the identifierof the cell, or the like) via a wired manner. For example, thetransmission of the information can be performed through the backhaulconnection from the base station to the spectrum management apparatus100 located in the core network.

In another example, the predetermined frequency band is an unlicensedfrequency band and the acquiring unit 101 acquires the spectrumutilization information via wireless communication in a licensedfrequency band. For example, when the spectrum management apparatus 100is located in the base station, it is possible to perform thetransmission of information in this way.

In this embodiment, the number of the wireless communication systemsmanaged by the spectrum management apparatus 100 can be two or more. Insuch a situation, as an example, the adjusting unit 103 can beconfigured to adjust, with respect to a wireless communication systemthe spectrum utilization efficiency of which does not reach the expectedvalue, the spectrum sensing parameters of the wireless communicationsystem without influencing the spectrum utilization efficiency of theother wireless communication systems. For example, the determining unit102 can be caused to determine the spectrum utilization efficiency ofthe other wireless communication systems according to a systemsimulation model. The system simulation model mentioned herein can bethe previously stated channel model, service model, model of probabilityfor spectrum activation of the system, geographical location model orthe like. For example, if the determining unit 102 determines that thespectrum utilization efficiency of the other wireless communicationsystems is influenced, the above adjusting is not performed.

In this example, different wireless communication systems can belong todifferent mobile operators or different service providers.

Taking the scenario shown in FIG. 2 as an example, FIG. 3 illustrates asimulation result of the probability of activation of the communicationsystem on the right side (the second communication system, belonging tothe second operator) and the communication system on the left side(referred as the first communication system, belonging to the firstoperator), in the case that the adjusting unit 103 adjusts the spectrumsensing parameters of the first communication system. In the simulation,the above mentioned model of probability for spectrum activation of thesystem is adopted. Each communication system includes 10 cells in totalrespectively, and the probability of activation for each cell is assumedto be 50%. The histogram in FIG. 3 illustrates a graph of statisticaldistribution of the number of the activated cells, when 10000simulations are performed in the case of changing the energy detectionthreshold of the first communication system. The horizontal axis denotesthe number of the activated cells, and the vertical axis denotes thenumber of occurrences of the event of activating the correspondingnumber of cells in the 10000 experiments. The (a), (c) and (e) on theleft side of FIG. 3 denotes the simulation result for the firstcommunication system, and (b), (d) and (f) on the right side of FIG. 3denotes the simulation result for the second communication system. The(c) of FIG. 3 is obtained in the case that the energy detectionthreshold is decreased compared with the case of (a). It can be seenthat, the probability of being activated is decreased for most cells,that is, the probability that the cells obtain the spectrum resourcesdecreases and the spectrum utilization efficiency of the system is low.The (e) of FIG. 3 is obtained in the case that the energy detectionthreshold is further decreased, and the spectrum utilization efficiencyof the system is further lowered at this time. In the case of changingthe energy detection threshold of the first communication system, theenergy detection threshold of the second communication system keepsunchanged. Moreover, it can be seen from (b), (d) and (f) of FIG. 3 ,the probability that the cells of the second communication system obtainthe spectrum resources substantially keeps unchanged. This is becausethat, the primary interferences originate from the co-existenceinterferences among cells of itself, and thus the adjustment of theenergy detection threshold of the first communication system does notinfluence it much.

It can be seen that, in this example, the spectrum management apparatus100 operates as a centralized management apparatus. It manages multiplewireless communication systems, so that the multiple systems utilize thespectrum resources reasonably. For example, the spectrum managementapparatus can be a geographical location database.

In the present embodiment, by adjusting the spectrum sensing parametersof the managed wireless communication system according to the spectrumutilization efficiency, the usage of the wireless communication systemwith respect to the spectrum resources of the predetermined frequencyband can be effectively guaranteed, and/or different communicationsystems are enabled to use the spectrum resources reasonably andeffectively.

The Second Embodiment

FIG. 4 illustrates a structural block diagram of the spectrum managementapparatus 200 according to another embodiment of the presentapplication. Besides the units shown in FIG. 1 , the spectrum managementapparatus 200 further includes: an interaction unit 201, configured tointeract with other spectrum management apparatus so that the adjustingunit 103 performs the adjusting while taking into consideration theinfluence to the other wireless communication systems. In thisembodiment, the number of the wireless communication systems managed bythe spectrum management apparatus is one.

Still taking FIG. 2 as an example, at this time, the first communicationsystem and the second communication system are each provided with arespective spectrum management apparatus. Therefore, a kind ofdistributed management is realized in this embodiment.

In an example, the interaction unit 201 is configured to transmit aparameter changing request to the other wireless communication apparatusin the case that the adjusting unit 103 has performed adjusting, andreceive a feedback from the other wireless communication apparatus. Theadjusting unit 103 further adjusts the spectrum sensing parametersaccording to the feedback. This operation of the interaction unit 201can avoid the influence to the other wireless communication systems.

The feedback can indicate whether the spectrum utilization efficiency ofthe wireless communication systems managed by the other spectrummanagement apparatus is influenced, and the adjusting unit 103 isconfigured to, in the case that the feedback indicates that the spectrumutilization efficiency of the wireless communication systems managed bythe other spectrum management apparatus is influenced, re-adjust thespectrum sensing parameters. For example, the spectrum sensingparameters are re-adjusted to a value between the original value and theadjusted value, or re-adjusted to the original value, and the like. Inother words, if the feedback indicates that the spectrum utilizationefficiency of the wireless communication systems managed by the otherspectrum management apparatus is not influenced, the adjusted spectrumsensing parameters are maintained. The feedback is made by the otherspectrum management apparatus according to for example the spectrumutilization efficiency of its managed wireless communication system.

In addition, when the interaction unit 201 receives the parameterchanging request from the other spectrum management apparatus, theacquiring unit 101 acquires the spectrum utilization information of thewireless communication system, the determining unit 102 determines thespectrum utilization efficiency of the wireless communication system anddetermines whether the spectrum utilization efficiency is influenced,and the interaction unit 201 provides the feedback indicating whetherthe spectrum utilization efficiency is influenced to the other spectrummanagement apparatus. Therefore, upon receiving the parameter changingrequest, the spectrum management apparatus 200 measures the spectrumutilization efficiency of its managed wireless communication system andfeedbacks.

It can be seen that, the spectrum management apparatus of the embodimentjust needs to interchange simple commands between them to achievecooperation among different communication systems, so that they utilizethe spectrum resources on the predetermined frequency band commonly in areasonable way.

The Third Embodiment

FIG. 5 illustrates a structural block diagram of the apparatus 300 for awireless communication system according to an embodiment of the presentapplication, wherein the apparatus 300 can be located for example at abase station side. The apparatus 300 includes: a transmitting unit 301,configured to transmit spectrum utilization information of a cell servedby the base station on a predetermined frequency band to a spectrummanagement apparatus; and a receiving unit 302, configured to receive achange in spectrum sensing parameters from the spectrum managementapparatus.

As stated previously, the spectrum management apparatus can be locatedat the base station side, for example, implemented by the macro basestation or the small base station. Alternatively, it can also be locatedin the core network, for example, implemented by the EPC under the LTEprotocol. In addition, in a current system complying with IEEE 802.19.1standard, the spectrum management apparatus can be implemented in theco-existence manager (CM). As an example, the spectrum managementapparatus can be the previously mentioned spectrum management apparatus100 or 200, but not limited thereto. In addition, the explanation aboutthe predetermined frequency band and the wireless communication systemis similar to that in the first embodiment, and will not be repeatedherein.

When a cell served by the base station is to utilize the predeterminedfrequency band, the spectrum sensing is to be performed at first. Thespectrum sensing can be executed by the base station separately, or canbe executed with the assistance of its user devices. Further, thespectrum sensing can be executed in cooperation with the other basestations and/or the user devices of the other base stations. When theresult of spectrum sensing indicates that the predetermined frequencyband is available, the cell makes use of this predetermined frequencyband. The base station reports the utilization information of its servedcells with respect to the predetermined frequency band to the spectrummanagement apparatus, so that the spectrum management apparatus acquiresthe spectrum utilization efficiency of the corresponding wirelesscommunication system.

In an example, the spectrum utilization information includes at leastone of the following: information of actual activation status of thecell after spectrum sensing, throughput of the base station, and asignal to noise ratio of the base station. After each base stationreports the spectrum utilization information, the spectrum managementapparatus can acquire the spectrum utilization efficiency of the wholecommunication system, so as to decide whether to adjust the spectrumsensing parameters.

When the spectrum management apparatus decides that it is necessary tochange the spectrum sensing parameters, it notifies the base station ofthe change to be made, so that the base station performs the spectrumsensing using the changed spectrum sensing parameters.

For example, the spectrum sensing parameters include at least one of thefollowing: an energy detection threshold for spectrum sensing, timeduration for spectrum sensing, the number of nodes involved in sensingand a judgment criterion of spectrum sensing in the case of distributedspectrum sensing. Upon the receiving unit 302 receives the change of thespectrum sensing parameters, the base station uses the changed spectrumsensing parameters when performing the spectrum sensing. In the casethat the user devices assist the base station in performing the spectrumsensing, the base station further notifies the user devices of thechange of the spectrum sensing parameters. The detailed descriptionabout the spectrum sensing parameters has been present in the firstembodiment, and will not be repeated herein. As stated above, since thechange of the spectrum sensing parameters may affect the probability forobtaining the spectrum resources, the spectrum utilization efficiency ofthe system may be changed.

As shown by the dotted line block in FIG. 5 , the apparatus 300 canfurther include: a judgment unit 303, configured to judge whether thepredetermined frequency band is available based on the spectrum sensingresult of the base station.

In an example, the receiving unit 302 is further configured to receivethe spectrum sensing results from other nodes, and the judgment unit 303is further configured to perform the judging based on the spectrumsensing results from the other nodes. The other nodes herein includeuser devices and/or other base stations. The judgment unit 303 judgeswhether the predetermined frequency band is available based on thespectrum sensing results from multiple nodes (including the present basestation). It can be understood that, in this example, the apparatus 300operates as a central judgment apparatus in the distributed spectrumsensing.

The judgment unit 303 would perform the final judgment according to thejudgment criterion of spectrum sensing set in the spectrum sensingparameters, using the spectrum sensing results from the nodes, thenumber of which is set in the spectrum sensing parameters. The detaileddescription about the judgment criterion has been given in the firstembodiment, and will not be repeated here. When these nodes areperforming spectrum sensing, they adopt the energy detection thresholdand the time duration for spectrum sensing set in the spectrum sensingparameters.

In addition, the judgment unit 303 can further judge, in the case thatthe predetermined frequency band is unavailable, judge whether thepresent cell and a cell already occupying the predetermined frequencyband are systems of the same type, and the transmitting unit 301provides a result of the judging to the spectrum management apparatus.As stated previously, the systems of the same type refer to one of thefollowing cases: the systems use the same spectrum access strategy, forexample, all of them are LTE cells or all of them are WiFi cells; orthey belong to the same mobile operator or the same service provider,for example, the cells located in the same ellipse of one side in theexample of FIG. 2 are systems of the same type.

In this situation, the spectrum management apparatus can perform theadjusting of the spectrum sensing parameters for example when receivingthe notification of being systems of the same type. Otherwise, it doesnot perform the adjusting.

The judgment unit 303 can perform the judging of whether being systemsof the same type based on at least one of the following: information ofan identifier of the cell, reference signal detection. The referencesignal detection is for example the preamble detection in WiFi, thesynchronization signal detection in LTE or the like. Such informationcan be extracted from the signals acquired during the spectrum sensing.Since the cells of different wireless communication systems havedifferent information of the identifier and different formats and/orcontent of the reference signal, it is possible to judge whether thecells are systems of the same type by the information.

In this embodiment, the apparatus 300 can report the spectrumutilization status to the spectrum management apparatus, and change thespectrum sensing parameters according to the instruction of the spectrummanagement apparatus, thereby realizing reasonable utilization of thespectrum resources.

In addition, it should be understood that the apparatus 300 may also belocated for example at an access point of a WiFi. Specifically, thetransmitting unit 301 transmits spectrum utilization information of theaccess point on the predetermined frequency band to the spectrummanagement apparatus, and the receiving unit 302 receives a change inspectrum sensing parameters from the spectrum management apparatus.

The Fourth Embodiment

FIG. 6 illustrates a structural block diagram of the apparatus 400 for auser device side of a wireless communication system according to anembodiment of the present application. The apparatus 400 includes: areceiving unit 401, configured to receive an instruction for performingspectrum sensing and corresponding spectrum sensing parameters from abase station; a sensing unit 402, configured to perform the spectrumsensing according to the spectrum sensing parameters in response to theinstruction; and a transmitting unit 403, configured to transmit aresult of the spectrum sensing to the base station.

As stated previously, the spectrum sensing parameters include at leastone of the following: an energy detection threshold for spectrumsensing, time duration for spectrum sensing, the number of nodesinvolved in sensing and a judgment criterion of spectrum sensing in thecase of distributed spectrum sensing.

In this embodiment, the user device assists the base station inperforming the spectrum sensing. Specifically, when the base stationneeds to perform the spectrum sensing, it notifies the user device. Theuser device notifies the base station of the result after finishingsensing, so that the base station can judge whether the predeterminedfrequency band is available. When the base station receives the changeof the spectrum sensing parameters notified by the spectrum managementapparatus, it also notifies the user device accordingly, so that theuser device performs the spectrum sensing in accordance with the changedspectrum sensing parameters. As stated previously, since the change ofthe spectrum sensing parameters may influence the probability ofobtaining the spectrum resources, the spectrum utilization efficiency ofthe system may be changed.

In this embodiment, the user device can receive the setting of thespectrum sensing parameters, and performs the spectrum sensing accordingto such setting, so as to use the spectrum resources reasonably.Similarly, it should be understood that the user device may also be aWiFi user device.

The Fifth Embodiment

It is apparent that some processing or methods are also disclosed in thedescription above on the spectrum management apparatus and the apparatusfor a base station side and a user device side of a wirelesscommunication system according to embodiments of the present invention.Below, the summary of the methods is described without repeating thedetails which are already discussed above, however, it should be notedthat although disclosed in the description of the spectrum managementapparatus and the apparatus for a base station side and a user deviceside of a wireless communication system, the methods do not certainlyemploy or are not certainly executed by the aforementioned components.For instance, embodiments of the spectrum management apparatus and theapparatus for a base station side and a user device side of a wirelesscommunication system may be partially or completely achieved by hardwareand/or firmware, and the method described below may be fully achieved bya computer-executable program, although the methods may employ thehardware and/or firmware of the spectrum management apparatus and theapparatus for a base station side and a user device side of a wirelesscommunication system.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of the spectrum management methodaccording to an embodiment of the present application. The methodincludes: acquiring spectrum utilization information of at least onewireless communication system in a predetermined region on apredetermined frequency band (S11); determining, according to thespectrum utilization information, spectrum utilization efficiency of acorresponding wireless communication system in the predetermined region(S12); and adjusting, based on the spectrum utilization efficiency,spectrum sensing parameters of the corresponding wireless communicationsystem in the predetermined region on the predetermined frequency band(S14).

Wherein, the spectrum utilization information can include at least oneof the following: information of actual activation status of each cellin the wireless communication system in the predetermined region afterspectrum sensing, throughput of the wireless communication system in thepredetermined region, and a signal to noise ratio of the wirelesscommunication system in the predetermined region.

The spectrum sensing parameters can include at least one of thefollowing: an energy detection threshold for spectrum sensing, timeduration for spectrum sensing, the number of nodes involved in sensingand a judgment criterion of spectrum sensing in the case of distributedspectrum sensing.

In an example, in the step S14, in the case that the spectrumutilization efficiency deviates from an expected value, the spectrumsensing parameters of the corresponding wireless communication system isadjusted, so that the spectrum utilization efficiency of thecorresponding wireless communication system reaches the expected value.For example, in the step S14, the adjusting can be performed based on apreset system model. The preset system model includes at least one ofthe following: a channel model, a service model, a model of probabilityfor spectrum activation of the system in the predetermined region, and ageographical location model. In addition, different expected values ofspectrum utilization efficiency can be set for wireless communicationsystems with different priority levels of utilizing the spectrum.

For example, in the case of the spectrum sensing parameters being anenergy detection threshold, in the step S14, if the spectrum utilizationefficiency is higher than the expected value, the energy detectionthreshold of the corresponding wireless communication system isdecreased, and/or if the spectrum utilization efficiency is lower thanthe expected value, the energy detection threshold of the correspondingwireless communication system is increased.

In the step S11, the spectrum utilization information can be acquiredvia a wired manner. In an example, the predetermined frequency band isan unlicensed frequency band and in the step S11, the spectrumutilization information is acquired via wireless communication in alicensed frequency band.

In the step S11, it is further possible to acquire informationindicating an identifier of each cell in the wireless communicationsystem in the predetermined region. As shown by the dotted line block inFIG. 7 , the method can further include a step S13 before the step S14.In step S13, it is determined whether a cell in an active state and acell failing to be activated are systems of the same type based on theinformation indicating the identifier of each cell in the wirelesscommunication system, for example, by detecting the signals during thespectrum sensing, extracting information of the cell ID from therein anddetermining. If it is a WiFi signal, the determining can be furtherperformed by detecting its preamble information. In the case ofdetermining that the cell in the active state and the cell failing to beactivated are systems of the same type, the adjusting of step S14 isperformed.

In an example, the number of the managed wireless communication systemsis two or more. In step S14, with respect to a wireless communicationsystem the spectrum utilization efficiency of which does not reach theexpected value, the spectrum sensing parameters of the wirelesscommunication system are adjusted without influencing the spectrumutilization efficiency of the other wireless communication systems.Wherein, the spectrum utilization efficiency of the other wirelesscommunication systems can be determined according to a system simulationmodel in the step S12. The examples of the system simulation model areas stated above, and will not be repeated here.

In this example, different wireless communication systems belong todifferent mobile operators or service providers. The above mentionedmethod can be implemented for example in a geographical locationdatabase.

In addition, in another example, the number of the wirelesscommunication systems managed by the spectrum management apparatus isone, and in step S14, interacting with other spectrum managementapparatus is performed so that the adjusting is performed while takinginto consideration the influence to the other wireless communicationsystems.

For example, the above mentioned method can further include thefollowing step: transmitting a parameter changing request to thespectrum management apparatus of the other wireless communicationapparatus in the case of performing the adjusting in step S14 (S15),receiving a feedback from the other wireless communication apparatus(S16), and further adjusting the spectrum sensing parameters accordingto the feedback (S17).

Wherein, the feedback indicates whether the spectrum utilizationefficiency of the wireless communication systems managed by the otherspectrum management apparatus is influenced, and in the step S17, in thecase that the feedback indicates that the spectrum utilizationefficiency of the wireless communication systems managed by the otherspectrum management apparatus is influenced, the spectrum sensingparameters can be re-adjusted, for example, be re-adjusted back to theoriginal value or be re-adjusted to a value between the original valueand the adjusted value, or the like.

In addition, although not shown in the Figure, the above mentionedmethod can further include the following steps: receiving the parameterchanging request from the spectrum management apparatus of the otherwireless communication system; acquiring the spectrum utilizationinformation of the wireless communication system; determining thespectrum utilization efficiency of the wireless communication system anddetermining whether the spectrum utilization efficiency is influenced;and providing the feedback indicating whether the spectrum utilizationefficiency is influenced to the above mentioned spectrum managementapparatus.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of the method for a base station side ofa wireless communication system according to another embodiment of thepresent application. The method includes: transmitting spectrumutilization information of a cell served by the base station on apredetermined frequency band to a spectrum management apparatus (S22);and receiving a change in spectrum sensing parameters from the spectrummanagement apparatus (S23).

Wherein, the spectrum utilization information includes at least one ofthe following: information of actual activation status of the cell afterspectrum sensing, throughput of the base station, and a signal to noiseratio of the base station.

The spectrum sensing parameters can include at least one of thefollowing: an energy detection threshold for spectrum sensing, timeduration for spectrum sensing, the number of nodes involved in sensingand a judgment criterion of spectrum sensing in the case of distributedspectrum sensing.

In addition, as shown by the dotted line block in FIG. 8 , the abovemethod can further include a step S21: judging whether the predeterminedfrequency band is available based on the spectrum sensing result. Thespectrum sensing result can be the spectrum sensing result of the basestation itself, or can include the spectrum sensing result received fromthe other nodes (including the base station and the user device), i.e.,a distributed sensing manner is adopted.

In addition, in the Step S21, in the case of judging that thepredetermined frequency band is unavailable, it is further judgedwhether the present cell and a cell already occupying the predeterminedfrequency band are systems of the same type, and a result of the judgingis provided to the spectrum management apparatus in step S22. Forexample, the judging of whether being systems of the same type can beperformed based on at least one of the following: information of anidentifier of the cell, reference signal detection.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of the method for a user device side of awireless communication system according to another embodiment of thepresent application. The method includes: receiving an instruction forperforming spectrum sensing and corresponding spectrum sensingparameters from a base station; performing the spectrum sensingaccording to the spectrum sensing parameters in response to theinstruction; and transmitting a result of the spectrum sensing to thebase station.

Wherein, the spectrum sensing parameters can include at least one of thefollowing: an energy detection threshold for spectrum sensing, timeduration for spectrum sensing, the number of nodes involved in sensingand a judgment criterion of spectrum sensing in the case of distributedspectrum sensing.

It is to be noted that, the above mentioned methods can be adoptedseparately or in combination, the details of which have been describedin detail in the first to the fourth embodiment and will not be repeatedhere.

In addition, in the above description, a communication system is alsodisclosed, including a base station and a user device, the base stationincludes the apparatus 300, and the user device includes the apparatus400.

For convenience of understanding, FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate examples ofthe information procedure between the spectrum management apparatus andthe wireless communication systems. It is to be noted that these are notlimiting. In FIG. 10 , the first wireless communication system and thesecond wireless communication system are located in in the predeterminedregion of the spectrum management apparatus. The two wirelesscommunication systems report their spectrum utilization information suchas the information of activation status of each cell to the spectrummanagement apparatus, and the spectrum management apparatus determinesthe spectrum utilization efficiency of the two wireless communicationsystems based on such information. For example, assuming that thespectrum utilization efficiency of the first wireless communicationsystem is lower than the expected value, while the spectrum utilizationefficiency of the second wireless communication system is substantiallyequal to the expected value, according to the calculation of the systemsimulation model, the updated spectrum sensing parameters of the firstwireless communication system are calculated without influencing thespectrum utilization efficiency of the second wireless communicationsystem and a spectrum sensing parameters updating command is transmittedto the first wireless communication system.

In FIG. 11 , an example where one spectrum management apparatus managesone wireless communication system and two spectrum management apparatusinteract with each other is illustrated. The first spectrum managementapparatus determines the spectrum utilization efficiency based on theacquired spectrum utilization information, and in the case of findingthat the spectrum utilization efficiency deviates from the expectedvalue, adjusts the spectrum sensing parameters, that is, transmits aspectrum sensing parameters changing instruction to the firstcommunication system, and issues a parameter changing request to thesecond spectrum management apparatus. The second spectrum managementapparatus acquires, upon receiving this request, the spectrumutilization information from the managed second communication system,judges whether the spectrum utilization efficiency is influenced by thechange of the spectrum sensing parameters of the first communicationsystem, and provides a feedback to the first spectrum managementapparatus based on the judgment. When the feedback indicates that thesecond communication system is not influenced, the first spectrummanagement apparatus instructs the first communication system to use theadjusted spectrum sensing parameters to operate, or no long provide anyadditional instruction to the first communication system. Otherwise, thefirst spectrum management apparatus instructs the first communicationsystem to use the original spectrum sensing parameters to operate.

Illustratively, the spectrum management apparatus described above may beused for coexistence management of wireless communication systems in abuilding that is covered by services of multiple LTE communicationsystems and WiFi systems.

Application Examples

The technology of the present disclosure is applicable to variousproducts. For example, the spectrum management apparatus 100 and 200 maybe realized as any type of server such as a tower server, a rack server,and a blade server. The spectrum management apparatus 100 and 200 may bea control module (such as an integrated circuit module including asingle die, and a card or a blade that is inserted into a slot of ablade server) mounted on a server.

In addition, the above mentioned base station 300 may be realized as anytype of evolved Node B (eNB) such as a macro eNB and a small eNB. Thesmall eNB may be an eNB such as a pico eNB, a micro eNB, and a home(femto) eNB that covers a cell smaller than a macro cell. Instead, thebase station may be realized as any other types of base stations such asa NodeB and a base transceiver station (BTS). The base station mayinclude a main body (that is also referred to as a base stationapparatus) configured to control radio communication, and one or moreremote radio heads (RRH) disposed in a different place from the mainbody. In addition, various types of terminals, which will be describedbelow, may each operate as the base station by temporarily orsemi-persistently executing a base station function.

For example, the user device 400 may be realized as a mobile terminalsuch as a smartphone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, aportable game terminal, a portable/dongle type mobile router, and adigital camera, or an in-vehicle terminal such as a car navigationapparatus. The terminal apparatus 300 may also be realized as a terminal(that is also referred to as a machine type communication (MTC)terminal) that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication.Furthermore, the user device 400 may be a radio communication module(such as an integrated circuit module including a single die) mounted oneach of the terminals.

[Application Examples Regarding Base Station] (First ApplicationExample)

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a first example of a schematicconfiguration of an eNB to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied. An eNB 800 includes one or more antennas 810and a base station apparatus 820. Each antenna 810 and the base stationapparatus 820 may be connected to each other via an RF cable.

Each of the antennas 810 includes a single or multiple antenna elements(such as multiple antenna elements included in an MIMO antenna), and isused for the base station apparatus 820 to transmit and receive radiosignals. The eNB 800 may include the multiple antennas 810, asillustrated in FIG. 12 . For example, the multiple antennas 810 may becompatible with multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 800. AlthoughFIG. 12 illustrates the example in which the eNB 800 includes themultiple antennas 810, the eNB 800 may also include a single antenna810.

The base station apparatus 820 includes a controller 821, a memory 822,a network interface 823, and a radio communication interface 825.

The controller 821 may be, for example, a CPU or a DSP, and operatesvarious functions of a higher layer of the base station apparatus 820.For example, the controller 821 generates a data packet from data insignals processed by the radio communication interface 825, andtransfers the generated packet via the network interface 823. Thecontroller 821 may bundle data from multiple base band processors togenerate the bundled packet, and transfer the generated bundled packet.The controller 821 may have logical functions of performing control suchas radio resource control, radio bearer control, mobility management,admission control, and scheduling. The control may be performed incorporation with an eNB or a core network node in the vicinity. Thememory 822 includes RAM and ROM, and stores a program that is executedby the controller 821, and various types of control data (such as aterminal list, transmission power data, and scheduling data).

The network interface 823 is a communication interface for connectingthe base station apparatus 820 to a core network 824. The controller 821may communicate with a core network node or another eNB via the networkinterface 823. In that case, the eNB 800, and the core network node orthe other eNB may be connected to each other through a logical interface(such as an S1 interface and an X2 interface). The network interface 823may also be a wired communication interface or a radio communicationinterface for radio backhaul. If the network interface 823 is a radiocommunication interface, the network interface 823 may use a higherfrequency band for radio communication than a frequency band used by theradio communication interface 825.

The radio communication interface 825 supports any cellularcommunication scheme such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced,and provides radio connection to a terminal positioned in a cell of theeNB 800 via the antenna 810. The radio communication interface 825 maytypically include, for example, a baseband (BB) processor 826 and an RFcircuit 827. The BB processor 826 may perform, for example,encoding/decoding, modulating/demodulating, andmultiplexing/demultiplexing, and performs various types of signalprocessing of layers (such as L1, medium access control (MAC), radiolink control (RLC), and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP)). TheBB processor 826 may have a part or all of the above-described logicalfunctions instead of the controller 821. The BB processor 826 may be amemory that stores a communication control program, or a module thatincludes a processor and a related circuit configured to execute theprogram. Updating the program may allow the functions of the BBprocessor 826 to be changed. The module may be a card or a blade that isinserted into a slot of the base station apparatus 820. Alternatively,the module may also be a chip that is mounted on the card or the blade.Meanwhile, the RF circuit 827 may include, for example, a mixer, afilter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives radio signals viathe antenna 810.

The radio communication interface 825 may include the multiple BBprocessors 826, as illustrated in FIG. 12 . For example, the multiple BBprocessors 826 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used bythe eNB 800. The radio communication interface 825 may include themultiple RF circuits 827, as illustrated in FIG. 12 . For example, themultiple RF circuits 827 may be compatible with multiple antennaelements. Although FIG. 12 illustrates the example in which the radiocommunication interface 825 includes the multiple BB processors 826 andthe multiple RF circuits 827, the radio communication interface 825 mayalso include a single BB processor 826 or a single RF circuit 827.

In the eNB 800 illustrated in FIG. 12 , the transmitting unit 301 andreceiving unit 302 described by using FIG. 5 may be implemented by theradio communication interface 825. At least a part of the functions mayalso be implemented by the controller 821. For example, the controller821 can implement the judgment whether the predetermined frequency bandis available by implementing the function of the judgment unit 303.

(Second Application Example)

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a second example of a schematicconfiguration of an eNB to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied. An eNB 830 includes one or more antennas 840,a base station apparatus 850, and an RRH 860. Each antenna 840 and theRRH 860 may be connected to each other via an RF cable. The base stationapparatus 850 and the RRH 860 may be connected to each other via a highspeed line such as an optical fiber cable.

Each of the antennas 840 includes a single or multiple antenna elements(such as multiple antenna elements included in an MIMO antenna), and isused for the RRH 860 to transmit and receive radio signals. The eNB 830may include the multiple antennas 840, as illustrated in FIG. 13 . Forexample, the multiple antennas 840 may be compatible with multiplefrequency bands used by the eNB 830. Although FIG. 13 illustrates theexample in which the eNB 830 includes the multiple antennas 840, the eNB830 may also include a single antenna 840.

The base station apparatus 850 includes a controller 851, a memory 852,a network interface 853, a radio communication interface 855, and aconnection interface 857. The controller 851, the memory 852, and thenetwork interface 853 are the same as the controller 821, the memory822, and the network interface 823 described with reference to FIG. 12 .

The radio communication interface 855 supports any cellularcommunication scheme such as LTE and LTE-Advanced, and provides radiocommunication to a terminal positioned in a sector corresponding to theRRH 860 via the RRH 860 and the antenna 840. The radio communicationinterface 855 may typically include, for example, a BB processor 856.The BB processor 856 is the same as the BB processor 826 described withreference to FIG. 12 , except the BB processor 856 is connected to theRF circuit 864 of the RRH 860 via the connection interface 857. Theradio communication interface 855 may include the multiple BB processors856, as illustrated in FIG. 13 . For example, the multiple BB processors856 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 830.Although FIG. 13 illustrates the example in which the radiocommunication interface 855 includes the multiple BB processors 856, theradio communication interface 855 may also include a single BB processor856.

The connection interface 857 is an interface for connecting the basestation apparatus 850 (radio communication interface 855) to the RRH860. The connection interface 857 may also be a communication module forcommunication in the above-described high speed line that connects thebase station apparatus 850 (radio communication interface 855) to theRRH 860.

The RRH 860 includes a connection interface 861 and a radiocommunication interface 863.

The connection interface 861 is an interface for connecting the RRH 860(radio communication interface 863) to the base station apparatus 850.The connection interface 861 may also be a communication module forcommunication in the above-described high speed line.

The radio communication interface 863 transmits and receives radiosignals via the antenna 840. The radio communication interface 863 maytypically include, for example, the RF circuit 864. The RF circuit 864may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, andtransmits and receives radio signals via the antenna 840. The radiocommunication interface 863 may include multiple RF circuits 864, asillustrated in FIG. 13 . For example, the multiple RF circuits 864 maysupport multiple antenna elements. Although FIG. 13 illustrates theexample in which the radio communication interface 863 includes themultiple RF circuits 864, the radio communication interface 863 may alsoinclude a single RF circuit 864.

In the eNB 830 illustrated in FIG. 13 , the transmitting unit 301 andreceiving unit 302 described by using FIG. 5 may be implemented by theradio communication interface 855 and/or the radio communicationinterface 863. At least a part of the functions may also be implementedby the controller 851. For example, the controller 851 can implement thejudgment whether the predetermined frequency band is available byimplementing the function of the judgment unit 303.

3. Application Examples Regarding User Device] (First ApplicationExample)

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a smartphone 900 to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied. The smartphone 900 includes a processor 901,a memory 902, a storage 903, an external connection interface 904, acamera 906, a sensor 907, a microphone 908, an input device 909, adisplay device 910, a speaker 911, a radio communication interface 912,one or more antenna switches 915, one or more antennas 916, a bus 917, abattery 918, and an auxiliary controller 919.

The processor 901 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on a chip(SoC), and controls functions of an application layer and another layerof the smartphone 900. The memory 902 includes RAM and ROM, and stores aprogram that is executed by the processor 901, and data. The storage 903may include a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory and a harddisk. The external connection interface 904 is an interface forconnecting an external device such as a memory card and a universalserial bus (USB) device to the smartphone 900.

The camera 906 includes an image sensor such as a charge coupled device(CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), andgenerates a captured image. The sensor 907 may include a group ofsensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyro sensor, a geomagneticsensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 908 converts soundsthat are input to the smartphone 900 to audio signals. The input device909 includes, for example, a touch sensor configured to detect touchonto a screen of the display device 910, a keypad, a keyboard, a button,or a switch, and receives an operation or an information input from auser. The display device 910 includes a screen such as a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) and an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, anddisplays an output image of the smartphone 900. The speaker 911 convertsaudio signals that are output from the smartphone 900 to sounds.

The radio communication interface 912 supports any cellularcommunication scheme such as LET and LTE-Advanced, and performs radiocommunication. The radio communication interface 912 may typicallyinclude, for example, a BB processor 913 and an RF circuit 914. The BBprocessor 913 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding,modulating/demodulating, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and performsvarious types of signal processing for radio communication. Meanwhile,the RF circuit 914 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and anamplifier, and transmits and receives radio signals via the antenna 916.The radio communication interface 912 may be a one chip module havingthe BB processor 913 and the RF circuit 914 integrated thereon. Theradio communication interface 912 may include the multiple BB processors913 and the multiple RF circuits 914, as illustrated in FIG. 14 .Although FIG. 14 illustrates the example in which the radiocommunication interface 912 includes the multiple BB processors 913 andthe multiple RF circuits 914, the radio communication interface 912 mayalso include a single BB processor 913 or a single RF circuit 914.

Furthermore, in addition to a cellular communication scheme, the radiocommunication interface 912 may support another type of radiocommunication scheme such as a short-distance wireless communicationscheme, a near field communication scheme, and a radio local areanetwork (LAN) scheme. In that case, the radio communication interface912 may include the BB processor 913 and the RF circuit 914 for eachradio communication scheme.

Each of the antenna switches 915 switches connection destinations of theantennas 916 among multiple circuits (such as circuits for differentradio communication schemes) included in the radio communicationinterface 912.

Each of the antennas 916 includes a single or multiple antenna elements(such as multiple antenna elements included in an MIMO antenna), and isused for the radio communication interface 912 to transmit and receiveradio signals. The smartphone 900 may include the multiple antennas 916,as illustrated in FIG. 14 . Although FIG. 14 illustrates the example inwhich the smartphone 900 includes the multiple antennas 916, thesmartphone 900 may also include a single antenna 916.

Furthermore, the smartphone 900 may include the antenna 916 for eachradio communication scheme. In that case, the antenna switches 915 maybe omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 900.

The bus 917 connects the processor 901, the memory 902, the storage 903,the external connection interface 904, the camera 906, the sensor 907,the microphone 908, the input device 909, the display device 910, thespeaker 911, the radio communication interface 912, and the auxiliarycontroller 919 to each other. The battery 918 supplies power to blocksof the smartphone 900 illustrated in FIG. 14 via feeder lines, which arepartially shown as dashed lines in the figure. The auxiliary controller919 operates a minimum necessary function of the smartphone 900, forexample, in a sleep mode.

In the smartphone 900 illustrated in FIG. 14 , the receiving unit 401and the transmitting unit 403 described by using FIG. 6 may beimplemented by the radio communication interface 912. At least a part ofthe functions may also be implemented by the processor 901 or theauxiliary controller 919. For example, the processor 901 or theauxiliary controller 919 can implement spectrum sensing by implementingthe function of the sensing unit 402.

(Second Application Example)

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a car navigation apparatus 920 to which the technologyof the present disclosure may be applied. The car navigation apparatus920 includes a processor 921, a memory 922, a global positioning system(GPS) module 924, a sensor 925, a data interface 926, a content player927, a storage medium interface 928, an input device 929, a displaydevice 930, a speaker 931, a radio communication interface 933, one ormore antenna switches 936, one or more antennas 937, and a battery 938.

The processor 921 may be, for example, a CPU or a SoC, and controls anavigation function and another function of the car navigation apparatus920. The memory 922 includes RAM and ROM, and stores a program that isexecuted by the processor 921, and data.

The GPS module 924 uses GPS signals received from a GPS satellite tomeasure a position (such as latitude, longitude, and altitude) of thecar navigation apparatus 920. The sensor 925 may include a group ofsensors such as a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an air pressuresensor. The data interface 926 is connected to, for example, anin-vehicle network 941 via a terminal that is not shown, and acquiresdata generated by the vehicle, such as vehicle speed data.

The content player 927 reproduces content stored in a storage medium(such as a CD and a DVD) that is inserted into the storage mediuminterface 928. The input device 929 includes, for example, a touchsensor configured to detect touch onto a screen of the display device930, a button, or a switch, and receives an operation or an informationinput from a user. The display device 930 includes a screen such as aLCD or an OLED display, and displays an image of the navigation functionor content that is reproduced. The speaker 931 outputs sounds of thenavigation function or the content that is reproduced.

The radio communication interface 933 supports any cellularcommunication scheme such as LTE and LTE-Advanced, and performs radiocommunication. The radio communication interface 933 may typicallyinclude, for example, a BB processor 934 and an RF circuit 935. The BBprocessor 934 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding,modulating/demodulating, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and performsvarious types of signal processing for radio communication. Meanwhile,the RF circuit 935 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and anamplifier, and transmits and receives radio signals via the antenna 937.The radio communication interface 933 may also be a one chip module thathas the BB processor 934 and the RF circuit 935 integrated thereon. Theradio communication interface 933 may include the multiple BB processors934 and the multiple RF circuits 935, as illustrated in FIG. 15 .Although FIG. 15 illustrates the example in which the radiocommunication interface 933 includes the multiple BB processors 934 andthe multiple RF circuits 935, the radio communication interface 933 mayalso include a single BB processor 934 or a single RF circuit 935.

Furthermore, in addition to a cellular communication scheme, the radiocommunication interface 933 may support another type of radiocommunication scheme such as a short-distance wireless communicationscheme, a near field communication scheme, and a radio LAN scheme. Inthat case, the radio communication interface 933 may include the BBprocessor 934 and the RF circuit 935 for each radio communicationscheme.

Each of the antenna switches 936 switches connection destinations of theantennas 937 among multiple circuits (such as circuits for differentradio communication schemes) included in the radio communicationinterface 933.

Each of the antennas 937 includes a single or multiple antenna elements(such as multiple antenna elements included in an MIMO antenna), and isused for the radio communication interface 933 to transmit and receiveradio signals. The car navigation apparatus 920 may include the multipleantennas 937, as illustrated in FIG. 15 . Although FIG. 15 illustratesthe example in which the car navigation apparatus 920 includes themultiple antennas 937, the car navigation apparatus 920 may also includea single antenna 937.

Furthermore, the car navigation apparatus 920 may include the antenna937 for each radio communication scheme. In that case, the antennaswitches 936 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigationapparatus 920.

The battery 938 supplies power to blocks of the car navigation apparatus920 illustrated in FIG. 15 via feeder lines that are partially shown asdashed lines in the figure. The battery 938 accumulates power suppliedform the vehicle.

In the car navigation apparatus 920 illustrated in FIG. 15 , thereceiving unit 401 and the transmitting unit 403 described by using FIG.6 may be implemented by the radio communication interface 933. At leasta part of the functions may also be implemented by the processor 921.For example, the processor 921 can implement spectrum sensing byimplementing the function of the sensing unit 402.

The technology of the present disclosure may also be realized as anin-vehicle system (or a vehicle) 940 including one or more blocks of thecar navigation apparatus 920, the in-vehicle network 941, and a vehiclemodule 942. The vehicle module 942 generates vehicle data such asvehicle speed, engine speed, and trouble information, and outputs thegenerated data to the in-vehicle network 941.

The basic principle of the present invention has been described above inconjunction with particular embodiments. However, as can be appreciatedby those ordinarily skilled in the art, all or any of the steps orcomponents of the method and apparatus according to the invention can beimplemented in hardware, firmware, software or a combination thereof inany computing device (including a processor, a storage medium, etc.) ora network of computing devices by those ordinarily skilled in the art inlight of the disclosure of the invention and making use of their generalcircuit designing knowledge or general programming skills.

As can be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the modules in theabove mentioned apparatus such as the determining unit, the adjustingunit, the sensing unit, the judgment unit, and so on can be implementedby one or more processors, while the modules such as the acquiring unit,the interaction unit, the transmitting unit, the receiving unit and soon can be implemented by circuit elements such as an antenna, a filter,a modem, a codec and so on.

Therefore, the present application further provides an electronic device(1), including a circuit, configured to: acquire spectrum utilizationinformation of at least one wireless communication system on apredetermined frequency band; determine, according to the spectrumutilization information, spectrum utilization efficiency of acorresponding wireless communication system; and adjust spectrum sensingparameters of the corresponding wireless communication system on thepredetermined frequency band based on the spectrum utilizationefficiency.

The present application further provides an electronic device (2),including a circuit, configured to: transmit spectrum utilizationinformation of a cell served by a base station on a predeterminedfrequency band to a spectrum management apparatus; and receive change inspectrum sensing parameters from the spectrum management apparatus.

The present application further provides an electronic device (3),including a circuit, configured to: receive an instruction forperforming spectrum sensing and corresponding spectrum sensingparameters from a base station; performing the spectrum sensingaccording to the spectrum sensing parameters in response to theinstruction; and transmitting a result of the spectrum sensing to thebase station.

Moreover, the present invention further discloses a program product inwhich machine-readable instruction codes are stored. The aforementionedmethods according to the embodiments can be implemented when theinstruction codes are read and executed by a machine.

Accordingly, a memory medium for carrying the program product in whichmachine-readable instruction codes are stored is also covered in thepresent invention. The memory medium includes but is not limited to softdisc, optical disc, magnetic optical disc, memory card, memory stick andthe like.

In the case where the present application is realized by software orfirmware, a program constituting the software is installed in a computerwith a dedicated hardware structure (e.g. the general computer 1600shown in FIG. 16 ) from a storage medium or network, wherein thecomputer is capable of implementing various functions when installedwith various programs.

In FIG. 16 , a central processing unit (CPU) 1601 executes variousprocessing according to a program stored in a read-only memory (ROM)1602 or a program loaded to a random access memory (RAM) 1603 from amemory section 1608. The data needed for the various processing of theCPU 1601 may be stored in the RAM 1603 as needed. The CPU 1601, the ROM1602 and the RAM 1603 are linked with each other via a bus 1604. Aninput/output interface 1605 is also linked to the bus 1604.

The following components are linked to the input/output interface 1605:an input section 1606 (including keyboard, mouse and the like), anoutput section 1607 (including displays such as a cathode ray tube(CRT), a liquid crystal display (LCD), a loudspeaker and the like), amemory section 1608 (including hard disc and the like), and acommunication section 1609 (including a network interface card such as aLAN card, modem and the like). The communication section 1609 performscommunication processing via a network such as the Internet. A driver1610 may also be linked to the input/output interface 1605, if needed.If needed, a removable medium 1611, for example, a magnetic disc, anoptical disc, a magnetic optical disc, a semiconductor memory and thelike, may be installed in the driver 1610, so that the computer programread therefrom is installed in the memory section 1608 as appropriate.

In the case where the foregoing series of processing is achieved throughsoftware, programs forming the software are installed from a networksuch as the Internet or a memory medium such as the removable medium1611.

It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the memorymedium is not limited to the removable medium 1611 shown in FIG. 16 ,which has program stored therein and is distributed separately from theapparatus so as to provide the programs to users. The removable medium1611 may be, for example, a magnetic disc (including floppy disc(registered trademark)), a compact disc (including compact discread-only memory (CD-ROM) and digital versatile disc (DVD), a magnetooptical disc (including mini disc (MD)(registered trademark)), and asemiconductor memory. Alternatively, the memory medium may be the harddiscs included in ROM 1602 and the memory section 1608 in which programsare stored, and can be distributed to users along with the device inwhich they are incorporated.

To be further noted, in the apparatus, method and system according tothe invention, the respective components or steps can be decomposedand/or recombined. These decompositions and/or recombinations shall beregarded as equivalent solutions of the invention. Moreover, the aboveseries of processing steps can naturally be performed temporally in thesequence as described above but will not be limited thereto, and some ofthe steps can be performed in parallel or independently from each other.

Finally, to be further noted, the term “include”, “comprise” or anyvariant thereof is intended to encompass nonexclusive inclusion so thata process, method, article or device including a series of elementsincludes not only those elements but also other elements which have beennot listed definitely or an element(s) inherent to the process, method,article or device. Moreover, the expression “comprising a(n) ......” inwhich an element is defined will not preclude presence of an additionalidentical element(s) in a process, method, article or device comprisingthe defined element(s)” unless further defined.

Although the embodiments of the invention have been described above indetail in connection with the drawings, it shall be appreciated that theembodiments as described above are merely illustrative but notlimitative of the invention. Those skilled in the art can make variousmodifications and variations to the above embodiments without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of theinvention is defined merely by the appended claims and theirequivalents.

1. An electronic device in a communication system, comprising: circuitryconfigured to: acquire spectrum utilization information on apredetermined bandwidth; determine, according to the spectrumutilization information, probability information indicating aprobability of getting spectrum resources on the predeterminedbandwidth; and adjust, based on the probability information, spectrumsensing parameters on the predetermined bandwidth, wherein the spectrumsensing parameters comprise an energy detection threshold for spectrumsensing, wherein the spectrum utilization information includes priorityinformation of utilizing spectrum, and the energy detection threshold isassociated with the priority information.
 2. The electronic deviceaccording to claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured toacquire the spectrum utilization information by measuring receivedsignal power on preconfigured Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing(OFDM) symbols.
 3. The electronic device according to claim 1, whereinthe spectrum utilization information comprises at least one of:information of actual activation status of each cell in thepredetermined region after spectrum sensing, throughput in thepredetermined region, and a signal to noise ratio in the predeterminedregion.
 4. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein thespectrum sensing parameters further comprise at least one of: timeduration for spectrum sensing, the number of nodes involved in sensing,and a judgment criterion of spectrum sensing in a case of distributedspectrum sensing.
 5. The electronic device according to claim 1, whereinthe circuity is further configured to: acquire information indicating anidentifier of each cell in the predetermined region; and determine,based on the information indicating the identifier of each cell, whethera cell in an active state and a cell failing to be activated are systemsof a same type, and the adjusting is performed in a case of determiningthat the cell in the active state and the cell failing to be activatedare the systems of the same type.
 6. The electronic device according toclaim 1, wherein the circuity is further configured to adjust, in a casethat the probability deviates from the expected value, the spectrumsensing parameters in the predetermined region.
 7. The electronic deviceaccording to claim 6, wherein the circuitry is further configured toperform the adjusting based on a preset system model.
 8. The electronicdevice according to claim 6, wherein the circuity is further configuredto: in a case of the probability being higher than the expected value,decrease the energy detection threshold.
 9. The electronic deviceaccording to claim 6, wherein the circuity is further configured to: ina case of the probability being lower than the expected value, increasethe energy detection threshold.
 10. The electronic device according toclaim 1, wherein the predetermined bandwidth is an unlicensed frequencyband, and the circuity is further configured to acquire the spectrumutilization information via wireless communication in a licensedfrequency band.
 11. An electronic device in a communication system,comprising: circuitry configured to: configure spectrum utilizationinformation on a predetermined bandwidth for a user equipment (UE),wherein probability information indicating a probability of gettingspectrum resources on the predetermined bandwidth is determined,according to the spectrum utilization information, wherein spectrumsensing parameters on the predetermined bandwidth is adjusted based onthe probability information, wherein the spectrum sensing parameterscomprise an energy detection threshold for spectrum sensing, wherein thespectrum utilization information includes priority information ofutilizing spectrum, and the energy detection threshold is associatedwith the priority information.